Mark Abley: Whatever it's called, ISIS is ugly

A fighter of the Islamic State group waves a flag from inside a captured government fighter jet following the battle for the Tabqa airbase, in Raqqa, Syria on Sunday.Raqqa Media Center Of The Islamic State Group, The Associated Press / The Associated Press

Isis used to enjoy a delightful variety of meanings. Among other things, it’s the name of a lunar crater, a genus of coral, the River Thames as it flows through Oxford, and a mysterious Bob Dylan song from the 1970s (“Isis, oh Isis, you mystical child, /What drives me to you is what drives me insane”). Most important, in ancient Egypt Isis was a goddess whose responsibilities included love, healing, motherhood and the protection of the dead. As the pharaoh’s mother, she wore a headdress in the shape of a throne.

In 2014, Isis has a much uglier sense. It’s widely used as an abbreviation for an extremist group that rose to prominence so fast, the English-language media have never reached a consensus on what to call it. On a single day last week, I found it referred to as ISIL (the Globe and Mail), IS (BBC), ISIS (The Gazette) and Isis (the Guardian). By contrast, the Los Angeles Times now appears to avoid any abbreviations and simply calls the group Islamic State.

Why the confusion? The movement is a young one, born in 2013 out of a merger between the socalled Islamic State of Iraq (ISI) and a terrorist force in Syria. Its original name in English was “Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham,” the latter expression referring not only to Syria but to all of the historical Levant (including Lebanon). That term lacks a precise geographical meaning; derived from the French for rising sun, it’s a loose though graceful way to indicate the lands of the eastern Mediterranean. The translation of al-Sham as “Levant” accounts for the final letter of ISIL, the preferred term in the U.S. State Department as late as June.

Two months ago, however, the extremists declared a caliphate in the lands they dominate, and chose to signify this region and their wider aspirations by the simple name Islamic State. That’s why the BBC now uses the abbreviation IS, just as La Presse and Le Devoir speak of EI (short for l’État islamique). Logically speaking, the name “IS” should be no harder to get our heads around than “US,” the United States. But the fact that “is” happens to be the commonest form of the inescapable verb “to be” renders IS a very tricky term. The use of “Islamic State,” unshortened, has clarity on its side.

The difficulties involved in this choice are by no means unique. Indeed, there’s absolutely no consistency in how speakers of English refer to foreign political movements. Sometimes we opt for a name in the language in question; at other times we rely on a translation. Both decisions can be thorny.

One of the main parties in Japan, for instance, is widely known in English as New Komeito. That word, I’m told, is made up of Japanese characters that signify public (or government), light (or brightness) and political party. Perhaps “Fairness Party” would be an apt translation. But unless you’re lucky enough to speak Japanese, “Komeito” is meaningless. On the other hand, the ruling faction in Japan does have a familiar English name: Liberal Democratic Party. Trouble is, it’s a conservative entity, with little about it that most North Americans would see as “liberal.” Simply because an abstract English word is employed elsewhere doesn’t mean it always has the meaning we think it should.

In the Middle East, foreign observers have seldom tried to impose an English name on political movements. True, Israel was governed for many years by the Labour Party, but the party of the current prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, is always known by the Hebrew word Likud, not by what that word means: “Consolidation.” Likewise, nobody speaks of the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, as a member of “Opening” or “Victory,” two possible translations of the Arabic acronym Fatah.

The most problematic translation of all may well be that of Hamas, the militant group that controls Gaza. According to some sources, “hamas” means merely “enthusiasm” in Arabic; others insist it means “zeal” or “fervour.” Hamas is also an acronym for Harakat al-Muqawama al-Islamiyya, which means (depending on where you stand) either Islamic Resistance Movement or Islamic Armed Movement. But hamas is a Hebrew word too, widely used in the Bible, signifying violence, oppression, destruction.

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